Tarantino: Elba 'too British' for 'Django Unchained'

The 'Wire' actor was in the running to star in the director's new movie about black slavery in America's Deep South, but Tarantino admitted that he never stood a chance because he wanted the role to go to a US star.

The filmmaker - who eventually cast Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx as the lead - said: "Yeah, Idris is British and this is an American story. I think a problem with a lot of movies that deal with this issue is they cast British actors to play the Southerners and it goes a long way to distancing the movie.

"They put on their gargoyle masks and they do their phoney accents and you are not telling an American story any more. They are just making hay of it, whether it be James Mason in 'Mandingo' or Michael Caine in 'Hurry Sundown', they get British actors to do this."

The film is set in 1858, when black people were used as slaves and Tarantino says he wanted to do a film that showed what really went on.

He told The Sun newspaper: "It has been pretty much ignored because it's uncomfortable and people in America are afraid of it. Other countries try it and fumble it because they don't understand it.

"We kind of, sort of, understand it but we are afraid of it. People say there are no new stories left.

"It's not true. There are all kinds of tales to be told in those pages of history."